I actually bought my easter eggs three days after easter – it's cheaper that way.
On Easter Sunday, I went down to the pier and I saw this boat, and there were people getting onto it. So I thought, maybe if I buy a ticket to get on the boat, it would be fun. So I did. You see, this boat is for the tourists. The man who sold me the ticket said the boat goes across the bay to Williamstown, and then I'd have to come right back without getting off the boat because it was the last trip of the day. And he added, "That will be a nice boat-ride." I showed the ticket to the boat-man as I walked across the gang-plank, and he let me on.
It was exciting to see the pier becoming further away as the boat started to move – I was seeing the whole scene from a new angle. There were people sitting on the top deck, looking out over the water, and there were people on the lower deck looking out the windows. I couldn't decide which was better, the top deck or the lower deck, so I was constantly wandering between the two.
When the pier was left behind, there was not much to see on the water. But then I looked over the side and I saw some jellyfish. One woman beside me said, "I've never seen so many jellyfish!" And a child on the right side of the boat said, "There's one! There's another one! There's another one!" And then a wind blew up and the weather started getting rough – the waves crashed over the deck and the captain said "Man the life-boats! We're going down!" Well, not really. I just wanted to make it sound more exciting.
The weather remained calm, and as we sailed into Williamstown we saw lots of different piers and some small boats and big boats. Then, we pulled in beside this pier that had a lot of people standing on it, and the captain said, "Those who are going back to St Kilda, stay aboard."
Some people got off the boat, and then many other people got on – it became crowded so I couldn't find a place to sit anymore. Then, we started on our return journey. When we had gone a little way, we saw this thing, that was like a boat, but it was also like an aeroplane, and we saw it take off from the water and fly away.
The captain stood on the deck and gave a speech – it was like a "safety talk" and he tried to spice it up with a few jokes 'cause he thought he was some kind of comedian. "The life jackets are in the cupboards on the lower deck", he said. "They should be dry from last week." (That was a joke.) And he said, "If you're going to jump in the water, make sure you look first so that you don't land on someone you like." I laughed, but it was sort of a "pity" laugh 'cause the jokes were so lame.
When we were about halfway across the bay, I saw this girl, she was like, eleven years old, and she was licking her mother's face repeatedly. Then she went over to her Dad and started licking his face, but he didn't like it so much so she went back to her mother and licked her again.
I'm glad I went for a ride on a boat, because you've got to try everything once. Otherwise you stand on the pier and you just see the people on the boat and you think, "Oh, their lives are so much better than mine", but once you've ridden on the boat yourself you know that it's not such a big deal.
See what happens when you click on the girl.
On Wednesday I was going to go to the karaoke like I usually do, but then I received a phone-call from my friend Boris who is a musician, and he said he was playing a solo gig at the Duke of Windsor pub. Apparently he only found out about it the same day – he didn't have much time to plan it, otherwise he would have invited me to play along with him on my keyboard. So I figured, "Well, I can go to the karaoke any time, but this week I'd rather go and see my friend Boris at his gig." So at half-past eight, I walked there.
Boris stood on the stage and played his guitar and sang into the microphone, and it sounded great. I already knew most of the songs so I sang along with the bits I knew, just quietly. Afterwards, he talked to me about the gigs we're going to have later, like the one at the Laundry on May 3rd. Then he offered me some chips and he said "Do you want a beer?" I said "No thanks," but he bought me one anyway and I drank it. I don't really like beer, but seeing as how he was so kind as to buy one for me it didn't seem right to refuse it. Then he invited me to go to another pub nearby, to watch his other friend play a little gig. He said his other friend was so talented, he was almost like Jeff Buckley. So I said, "I'll see you there."
After I finished the beer, I walked to the other pub – it was called "A Pint On Punt" and it was about 1.3 km away. I'd never been to this pub before – it seemed to be decorated in an old-fashioned way and I noticed a lot of historical photos on the walls. In one corner there was an open fire-place with a fire in it. And on one wall there was this framed newspaper page from 1912, it was all about the Titanic sinking. I looked up, and I saw some old pots and bottles on shelves, and a sign that said "Trafalgar Square WC2 City Of Westminster." At the end of the room, there were some men playing guitar in a "blues" style.
click to enlarge
After forty minutes Boris came over to me, and he said "I think I'll be going soon. I don't think my friend is going to play here tonight after all." But the minutes went by, and he didn't go. And I thought, "Hmmmmm. If I stay here after he leaves, and his friend ends up not playing, then it will all be a waste of time. But if I leave at the same time as him, it will seem like I only came here because of him, and not because I'd hoped to hear some good music. So the best thing to do would be to leave before him." So I did. You know, it's always nice to check out a band-venue that I haven't seen before, and no evening is a waste of time when there's music to be heard and pictures to be taken.
I worked on my painting – this week I'm only working on the left side of it, trying to get the fine details in the faces and stuff. It's a hell of a thing – drawing thin lines with the smallest brush is difficult enough, but getting the soft subtle gradations of colour in a person's skin is near impossible. I guess it takes years of practice to do it right. I reckon, if I'm not lazy, it'll be finished in a couple of weeks.
I woke up this morning and I had this wild idea – it's one of those ideas that I wish I'd had four months ago 'cause now it's too late, but anyway, the idea was that I should pretend, in this journal, that I have a girlfriend and I write that my girlfriend is taking all these pictures of me as we do all these interesting activities together. And all my friends and family who read it would be thinking, "What? I didn't know he had a girlfriend!? Why haven't we met her?" And maybe they'd be annoyed when they find out that it was a deception, but if they examine the journal closer they'd realise that the lies add a whole new level of "depth" to the journal because the girlfriend would represent my "feminine side" and I could claim that it's her who's persuading me to do all these things, or whatever. I actually re-wrote one of my earlier entries, as an experiment – click here to read it. Hmmmmmmm people would think I was crazy, if I adopted this idea.
When I went down to the foreshore, to sit on the rocks on the breakwater and read a "Harry Potter" book, I had a bit of a mis-hap. You see I accidentally up-ended my bag just after I opened it, and the book fell out. It fell through a gap in the rocks, and when I looked into the gap, I saw the book floating in the sea-water. I couldn't reach it, at first, then I squeezed my whole body into the narrow gap and plucked the book out of the water. It was wet. Sometimes, when you drop a book into water, it's completely ruined. But in this case, only the edges of the pages got wet, and when they dried out you would hardly even notice the difference. So it's okay.
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Live Music:
Saturday (the 19th) I went out to the Empress Hotel to see Fizard. The support band were not so much a band as a couple of hip-hop guys who rapped to a backing-track, and they were called Equils. The backing-track sounded like it was a bit too quiet and not loud enough to dance to, and the rapping sounded so-so. But then Fizard came out and sounded much better – they had real drums and bass, with guitar and electric piano, and I couldn't even remember where I'd heard a funkier hip-hop group. They really got the place jumpin'. You'd almost think the sound-restrictions didn't exist – until the end, when everyone applauded wildly and the lead-rapper said "Shhhhh! The neighbours!!" I was going to buy their CD, but then I couldn't find the place to buy one so I didn't.
Historical photo of the week:
Stephen Clark, six years old
Reading:
This week, I read the book "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets", which is the second book in the famous Harry Potter series. It's about this guy – who's a wizard – and he goes to this school – and a bunch of people in the school become 'petrified' by an unknown assailant. People start suspecting Harry Potter is the culprit, because he's always on the scene when it happens. But we know he's innocent. While I was reading this book, I thought to myself, "I think I know who's responsible for the attacks – it must be Ron's brother Percy. He's acting all weird 'n stuff." But it turned out to be not Percy after all. And therein lies the genius behind J.K. Rowling's narrative – you can't predict anything with accuracy. And I like the way she develops the characters further, from the first book. She's the best children's author ever. I'm going to see the movie in a couple of days.
Television:
That show Freaks and Geeks is being repeated at two a.m. (or two-thirty) Tuesday nights. The late time-slot is no problem for me 'cause I'm always up that late anyway. It's a very, very, very good show – it's cool, and clever, and heart-warming and funny. It's about this girl, who's very smart and she's trying to shed her nerd-like image and fit in with the cool freaky-rebel students at school. And it's also about this guy, her brother, who is friends with a couple of dorky-looking geeks and he has trouble with bullies and sometimes, when he's trying to talk to girls, he makes a fool of himself. I like this show so much, I tape it, and I keep the episodes on tape. It's different from the other teenage shows, 'cause, y'know, it's not about the "cool" people.
Stephen Clark, six years old